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Hey guys, I told some friends at Metro that I would help them gather some cyclists complaints with Metro buses, so I'm hoping some of you'all could share some good and bad experiences with transit buses while rolling through the streets. Remember, the thread will be read by some folks at Metro's operations, so try to include a solution with your experience if you feel like posting anything.
81 bus line...
Complaint #1: On two different occasions by same driver...she told me " I hate you asshole bike riders" and she continued " I wish I could rip the bike rack of the front of my bus so I wouldn’t have to stop for you people" there were a few more not so nice words that she used...She said that if we ride bikes then we don’t have a reason to use the bus
Complaint #2: busses regularly pass anyone waiting at the bus stop with a bike because “I don't have time to wait while you put your bike on the rack"
i really like Metro, except the stupid no-transfer policy for metro-to-metro.
and yeah, drivers can be dicks, but you also have to consider the HUNDREDS of asshole riders they have to deal with PER DAY. its kinda like cops. they don't know that you're not some fucker who's going to try something on them, so they treat you with suspicion at the very least. it sucks, but it is understandable.
i also wish the 115 down Manchester Blvd would swing around a little more often than once an hour or whatever it is, but thats just a local problem.
After awhile, the driver tends to eye you with suspicion, but if you ride the same route at the same time of the day like I do, they begin to know who you are and treat you a Helluva lot better than the rest.
I primarily take the 18 and 33 routes on the weekends and the drivers on those lines usually like hearing my tales of the rampant paths of destruction the previous nights ride took!!!
That, and I'm usually the last guy on the bus by the last stop.
When the bus is empty, but the racks are full, or missing, or broken, I can't bring my bike on? That's crap.
Drivers continually drive so close and so fast, that almost always feel like I'm going to get hit.
When I pass them, on the left, due to them picking people up, often times it seems they will wait for me, and then begin merging left as I'm next to them.
It seems every few years the fares jump 100%, I'm now down for that when the service quality is never increased, and in most cases is much worse.
I've gotten mugged on a bus by a guy with a gun, and when I went to the front to ask the driver to call the cops, as the guy was still on the bus, he replied "I did not see anything, so I"m not going to call."
I have gotten repeatedly passed by buses, with and without my bike.
After the Hewlett Packard Mushroom Singalong Horoscope ride,
a few of us waited at a bus stop on Santa Monica Blvd. in hopes to put two of our bikes on the rack and one in the back. When the bus arrived, the bus driver looked at us and antipathetically told us that we couldn't carry a bike on her bus (mind you it was empty), and we had to make up our minds in two seconds. Right after she said that we looked at eachother to clarify what she had just told us, and she closed the doors and drove off.
A month back, I was taking the 33 back to downtown after Wetside Ambush.
There were already two bikes on the rack, but the driver just said, "Hurry up and get that shit through the back door!!"
I proceeded to chew the driver out about how my "shit-bike" survived a blizzard, and a deathmarch through a 130 degree Phoenix!!
I was crossing the street with my bike on the crosswalk when a bus start to turn right, it didn't even let me finish crossing the street. I had to jump of my bike so i won't get killed. It ran over my rear tire and bent my derailer. I parked my bike, went to their service stop and confronted the driver.
he told me "everything that happens after the front wheel is not his responsibility"
never got a chance to report it but i got two numbers. 34638 mta personnel number and 6472 bus number.
Early July around 7am on Sunset and Virgil
LIKE RB SAID they are all generally assholes and bitches. we are not talking about the buses, we are talking about 97% of the operators of these 11+ tons of battering ram and brute force. definately a lethal weight and force they are maneuvering out there and they seem completely evil and irresponsible with this power at times, all to frequent these times.
the buses however do serve one amazing and self gratifying purpose... drafting with them behind them at the same speed as they do 35+ sometimes or even a steady 25+ at times, the importance is not the speed, but staying on that wind ripcurl that sucks you in. DRAFTING is all these worthless boxes of steel glass, plastic resins and rubber are good for to me. other than when i have massive bike damage or repair needs, then they are the buck and 25 cent tow truck ride home.
well i hate the fact that only two bikes can ride the bus at a time.. we need more bike racks and oh yeah some cupholder too.. got to have cupholders......
and another thing why haven't the buses gone hybrid yet they over any other thing on the road should have done this by now or at least in the near future.. i guess lack of funds is to blame...
My experience with the bus system unfortunately is almost exclusively negative. I'll just list the two worst ones. First one involves riding West on Venice Blvd, right before the 405, on the weekend. I was riding about 2-3 car lengths in front of my friend when a bus rolled up behind me. He was at my side for about 3 to 4 seconds when he starting merging into my bike lane! I had to use my brakes and slow down as I was about in the middle of the side of the bus. Needless to say I was a bit ticked off and let the driver know about when he stopped. I'm not sure what all was said at the bus stop, but I let him know what he pulled back there was dangerous and a traffic infraction. It was like talking to a fence post!
Second incident was trying to get on the bus in Santa Monica around 6am Sunday morning to catch a ride to downtown LA. There was three of us and we thought we would give it a shot at getting on the bus all together. The bus rolls up with no bikes on the rack and maybe 8 people on the bus. We tried talking our way on with one of the bikes, but the bus driver wasn't having any of it. He refused to let the third bike on. So we just let our friend take the bus and the two of us rode downtown. I would have been very pissed if our friend, a twenty something female got assaulted or something on the bus. She couldn't ride with us cause she was too tired.
Here's a little advice. Get rid of your bad drivers. They're going to cost you a hell of alot of money in the end. Train the drivers well that you want to keep. Setup a system that you are doing unannounced performance evaluations on their shift. This gives them an incentive to do well. This would take care of ALOT of your problems. And who knows, you just might get more people riding your buses.
Sure would be swell if we had more peeps posting to this comment section. Looks like the MTA is showing some kind of effort here. It's pretty easy to be cynical about their effort, but in the end, what does it get either of us?
In response to some high-profile incidents between cyclists and buses in recent months, Metro has put together a task force to work on improving the relationship between the two road users. Because Metro is putting forward a good faith effort to make the streets more safe for cyclists, I thought we could help them out by making a comprehensive list on cyclists concerns with buses and bus drivers, and what can be done to make the situation better. Folks, the comments section is open.
i just got word about and hour ago that a woman got slaughtered by a bus as she was crossing in the crosswalk on 5th & Flower in DTLA.
buses almost always run red lights (especially in DTLA) and honk as though they have the right of way. this seems super dangerous and i'm surprised more people haven't been killed.
this issue needs to be brought to the attention and Metro needs to do something about this but i don't exactly know where to start. letters seem like slow processes. i feel like going to 5th & flower or LADOT or LAPD and shaming them for not taking responsibility.
This bus pulled over to a bus stop and slammed on it's brakes right in front of me on a ride in North Hollywood on 12/26. I don't know why he couldn't have just pulled in behind me.
aside from the limited bike rack space (which [i think] is understandable from a structural standpoint), i find most metro buses and bus drivers to be totally nice and accommodating, not to mention entertaining. no real complaints.
I have to say the majority of the MTA bus operators that I interact with drive like the professionals that they are. Unfortunately there are some drivers that are rolling time-bombs that are either oblivious, rude, or vindictive.
interacting with them on the road is much more likely to produce a life threatening situation than dealing with the average idiot driver.
...........
Here is testimony from my boy G.Brown as he got trapped between the moving bus and a row of parked cars.
I hate when bus drivers get behind me and honk. Most of the time they are honking so they can floor it up to the next red light. I always end up passing the same bus multiple times and the retard just keeps honking. I
sn't it obvious that traffic will only allow the bus to move a certain speed and rushing up to red lights doesn't get you there any faster.
I've also experienced bus drivers' tendency to pass by cyclists waiting at bust stops. I chased one bus to the next stop and confronted the driver as to why she did not stop for me and Krista in downtown (Venice and Hill) at night. She said you have to stand up and wave otherwise she though we were just sitting there. Total bullshit.
Rapid buses tend to have better more courteous drivers than the standard metro drivers.
Those orange buses are mostly filled with unhappy drivers with real bad attitudes. Have another soda.... your 8 hour shift of sitting on you ass in traffic being a jerk is almost over.......
I just want to also mention that the MTA's one PSA regarding bikes was somewhat of a failure. So it seems like they gave up. I have have never seen or heard of one since.
If the MTA thinks that bike should account for 5% of the trips made by 2025 why not have 5% of the metro ads promote cycling and bike safety? Busses would be a great place for public service announcements to encourage people to ride bikes and to encourage/ educate drivers and cyclists about safely sharing the road.
i.e.:
look before opening your car door
cyclists have a right to be on the road
give a cyclist generous passing distance
USE YOUR SIGNALS
Keep the bike lane clear
bikes make less traffic
bike make more parking
bike make cleaner air
bike make healthier citizens
to be fair, i always see bus drivers pass people on stops if they're sitting on benches. they do assume people are just sitting there. when i see my bus coming, i get up and signal to them or i stand close to the curb.
it's kinda funny to see someone jump up all pissed off as the bus passes them by.
@ stilline -- to be fair to the bus drivers, based on my many experiences wiff the bus, most bus drivers will pass you up if you're sitting on a bench as they're approaching the bus stop -- whether or not you have a bike with you. it's happened to me often. it kinda makes sense that buses aren't going to wait at each stop especially if there are multiple routes along the stop and no clear indication that anyone needs to get on/off there.
anyway, i think that's more of a public bus transportation etiquette thing than anything else. werd.
Best suggestion I heard is to fuck with their mirror when they are stopped and you roll by. Problem solved! No longer are they on your ass. They're at the stop adjusting their mirror.
I will always harken back to that one satisfying day when I pulled a mirror on some fat ass bus driver who at 10pm sunday night wouldnt let me on the back of the orangeline with full bike racks.... hahaha oh man. called her a fat fucken bitch made her lazy fat ass get up and adjust the mirror. hahaah. racing back to NH called her fat ass out at every stop she could catch up to me at. LOL. I hate myself.
It sucks that they won't let an extra bike on the bus when the rack is full. Especially if it's really late at night AND the bus is mostly empty AND it's very cold outside. That really really sucks.
Solution: Be a reasonable person and let the rider on with their bike!
I understand the 'you're just sitting there' thought. It does make sense.
I used to take the MTA 81 & 83 through DTLA to work in the mornings. Lots of stops along the way with all the same regular cats ready to head to wherever they go w/ez pass in hand. From my seat I can clearly see them stand at the stop and wave at the driver..... and keep waving at the half empty bus as we keep rollin by with this shocked look on their elderly faces.
Different drivers, same route & 6 outta 10 were dickheads. The evening drivers were much more zen about driving.
They need to be more considerate of cyclists on the road. I've only been riding on the road since November and I've already had numerous incidents when a bus begins to merge into my lane while I'm still at the bus's side. I'm surprised my bike hasn't been pinched against the curb and my leg severed by these drivers.
That's the nastiest move buses will pull...they're actually usually pretty damn cool about changing lanes to pass, considering how unwieldly it is, but a bus will ALWAYS try and pin you against a curb if they have a stop coming up, rather than slow down and let you go first. you just have to learn to anticipate/recognize this is happening and slow down and go behind the bus, passing them on the left as they pull over for the stop.
If you're on a familiar stretch of road and feeling hardcore, however, this can be a perfect opportunity to get a draft going and have the bus pull you up to it's cruising speed of 30-35.
i didn't get the full story about what happened before the DASH bus hit this woman who was in the middle of the cross walk, but ingrid rode by on her way to work this morning and she said it looked like smashed watermelon on the ground.
apparently the woman's guts and brain were smeared onto the concrete. i went by 5th & Flower tonight to 'smell the death' and found a tiny memorial of flowers and notes. this is too tragic.
i've been in DTLA a lot lately, and i see at least one bus every day running red lights at full speed.
Buses run lights all-day long. The lady was decapitated and dismembered. I called DASH but they would say nothing.I also talked to the ambulance drivers and they would only say that she did not look good. I did not see any of it but asked around and got very little and nothing confirmed. Some say the bus ran the light. I was told that She was in her 50's and worked in the Paul Hastings building. LAPD, City of LA and LADOT are not saying anything when I have called. I dialed 213. 808 2273. to talk to LADOT
I live/ride DTLA and the most hazardous thing on the rode is the busses!!!
They cut you off all the time, even if the light is red. Buses pass you then dive in front of you to get to the bus stop without signaling the proper distance, that may not be their fault since most of the bus stops are at near corners. But everyday I play this game with buses, you cut me off, I pass you, then you pass me and cut me off again, then I pass you, over and over again.
Buses ride too close to each other, we both share the bus lane/regular lane by law, but the buses ride 1 car length (not bus length) from each other creating a moving wall that prevents cyclist from entering the lane and turning.
But the most important thing ill say is buses run red lights!!!!! let me say this again they RUN RED LIGHTS! they don't enter the intersection while it's yellow, buses cross the intersection after the light is red and since the bus is long it creates a hazard more dangerous than any vehicle on the rode. Most of the times buses run the red and then honk their horn, I'm sorry,but when does honking the horn allow you the right to run a red? I know there was a thing that held yellows for buses but from my everyday experience they ABUSE the assumption that it will stay yellow and blow through red light as if they were yellow/green. The reason they do this is because they get away with it, when was the last time you ever say a bus getting a ticket? I have ridden on/with busses over 10 years and have never seen 1 ticket issued, but plenty of illegal actions.
IMO buses know they're the biggest vehicle on the rode and they bully all other traffic out of their way, especially bicyclist.
Most busses have cameras on the inside and on the curb side of the bus to video crimes and such. Why doesn't MTA put one on the front of the bus aiming forward, thats where you'll catch the majority of the criminal activity.
if you call 877 ASK-LAPD and tell them you are with the press doing a story about the incident, that would really help get the information out... there really should be some sort of press release about this truly horrific incident.
first they need to run the gold line and red line 24 hours are at least until 3 in the morning on weekends. think of how much it would cut down on drunk driving. and yeah maybe some bike racks on the back s of busses. its funny they wont let bikes on the busses. but im sure everyone has been on when there is a homeless guy on there with like five huge bags of recyclings takeing up like three seats. oh and if they would make bus passes easyer to fake like the rtd days that would be cool too.
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